Dash (DASH) is a privacy-centric digital currency with instant transactions. It is based on the Bitcoin software, but it has a two-tier network that improves it. Dash allows you to remain anonymous while you make transactions, similar to cash.

With Bitcoin, transactions are published to the blockchain and you can prove who made them or to whom, but with Dash the anonymization technology makes it impossible to trace them. This is important because the blockchain is accessible to anyone with an internet connection – a significant drawback for those don’t wish their transaction history and balances to be publicly available. Dash does this through a mixing protocol utilizing an innovative decentralized network of servers called Masternodes, avoiding the need for a trusted third party that could compromise the integrity of the system.

Masternode Network

Full nodes are servers running on a P2P network that allows peers to use them to receive updates about the events on the network. These nodes require significant amounts of traffic and other resources that carry substantial cost. As a result, on the Bitcoin network, a steady decrease in the amount of these nodes has been observed for some time and as a result block propagation have been upwards of 40 seconds. Many solutions have been proposed such as a new reward scheme by Microsoft Research and the Bitnodes incentive program

Instant Transactions via InstantSend

By utilizing Masternode quorums, users are able to send and receive instant irreversible transactions. Once a quorum has been formed, the inputs of the transaction are locked to only be spendable in a specific transaction, a transaction lock takes about four seconds to be set currently on the network. If consensus is reached on a lock by the Masternode network, all conflicting transactions or conflicting blocks would be rejected thereafter, unless they matched the exact transaction ID of the lock in place.

This will allow vendors to use mobile devices in place of traditional POS systems for real-world commerce and users to quickly settle face-to-face non-ommercial transactions as with traditional cash. This is done without a central authority.